Voices of Power: Ken Salazar

By
Ed O'Keefe

Ken Salazar and Barack Obama both arrived at the U.S. Senate in 2004, the only Democrats to win Senate elections that year. The two later lived in the same building and the Colorado Democrat now serves as Interior Secretary.

In her latest "Voices of Power" interview, The Post's Lois Romano speaks with Salazar about his close relationship with the president and his new job at Interior.

"There was a mess that was left here by the prior administration, and it essentially revolves around a perspective around here that the laws were to be skirted, and the consequence of that is that we're dealing with many decisions that have had to be revisited," Salazar says. "It's in the context of cleaning up the mess and bringing about . . . a new direction that there has been a swing back by some in the Republican Party. . . . The unfortunate legacy of the Bush administration is at the political level, there were ethical lapses and illegal activity that occurred that created a blemish on this department probably like no other . . . when you have deputy secretaries who have been sent to prison, when you have criminal conduct that essentially has taken place in MMS."